More than 900 men have pulled on the Wallabies jersey in years gone by.
RUGBY.com.au is taking a walk down memory lane to find out what some of Australia's Classic Wallabies are up to now and asking them to reflect on their Test journeys.
This week, Adam Lucius speaks to Classic Wallaby Steve Tuynman.
Q: How did your rugby story start?
A: My father was involved with Hunters Hill juniors and my older brother was playing. I grew up opposite Boronia Park where Hunters Hill juniors were based so it was a natural progression. I played soccer, cricket, swam as well…you played and did everything back then but rugby was always the game I was most attracted to.
Q: Was it obvious to you at that stage that you had the necessary talent to make a go of it?
A: You probably don’t have those dreams until you’re into your teenage years. Dad used to takes us to watch the Wallabies and NSW and I guess that's where you start to think the game could take you places.
Q: The one thing that stands out about your early career is the opportunities you were afforded at such a young age?
A: I was playing Colts (at Eastwood) at 15 and grade not long after. Then came the Schoolboys tour (of 1981/82). Australia had a pretty good history in regards to Schoolboys rugby. We had a very good side and won every game and only had one try scored against us. One of the big memories from that tour was being stuck in Wales for a week after we were snowed in. We stayed in an air force base in this big room full of beds. You had to dig your way out of the door every day. We were supposed to go to Holland but that was cancelled, so we ended up going south to Cornwall and picking up a game there. It was a lot of fun.
Q: On the back of that tour, your rep career really starts to take off.
A: I got selected for Sydney and then NSW and ended up getting picked for the Wallabies tour (to New Zealand) that year (1982). I'd only just turned 19 and was playing with and against guys you'd looked up to and admired for so long. I was the youngest and it was eye opening. Those tours were hard. You'd be away for two months and play 13, 14 games throughout New Zealand. We played Auckland, Wellington…all those sorts of teams. I wish those tours were still around. They were a great experience.
Q: You were also playing Australian under-21s at the same time?
A: I had about three or four years in the 21s. Back then our 21s side, at one stage, had six Test players in it - Campo, Michael Lynagh, Tommy Lawton, Cameron Lillicrap, Jeff Miller (and Tuynman). You could do both back then. You'd play 21s one week and the Wallabies the next and then club rugby on a Sunday.
Q: Your Test debut came in France in 1983. It must have been a tough initiation?
A: That was a pretty tough tour. They'd send you from one end of the country to another and the select sides you'd play were full of internationals. By the time the Tests come around they've pretty much worked out your whole game. A lot of players made themselves unavailable for that tour so we were a very young side and France was coming off winning the Five Nations. We did well to draw it (15-all).
Q: Australia lost the second Test – and you almost left behind a body part?
A: Yeah, I pretty much lost my left ear in that game. I was getting up out of a ruck and two of the French guys came over and rucked my head out. It pretty much ripped the ear off. We patched it up and I finished the game. Much to the amusement of everyone else, when they took the tape off the ear came off with it. They stitched it up and when I got home I had plastic surgery on it and got it all fixed up. There were no problems with my hearing or anything like that.
Q: Did you resent that attack?
A: No. These days there would be life bans but that's just the way the game was then. Our first game on tour was pretty much an all-in brawl the whole time. It was a real badge of honour if you were on the ground and on top of the ball and stayed there and got rucked.
Q: The Grand Slam tour of '84 is still spoken about in reverential tones. What an experience that must have been?
A: No-one really expected us to do well. There was a really big change in how we approached the game. Alan Jones came aboard and a few young blokes were picked and everything just came together. It was a special tour. It's a long tour – you're away from family and friends for a few months – and you're not getting paid for it. There was a lot you could have worried about but the guys really stuck together. That tour really set up Australian rugby for a long time to come.
Q: A lot of people say your pushover try against Wales at Cardiff Arms Park was the defining moment of that Grand Slam tour?
A: We'd talked about it in the lead-up to the game. Our scrum was going well and we thought this could be an opportunity to go for it. The call was "Sampson". The ball was there and I just piled in on it. I suppose as No.8 I'm the one who gets my name on the board. It definitely silenced the crowd. We gained a lot of respect from fans on that tour for the way we played.
Q: Another time you silenced the crowd was in 1986 when you scored what looked a legitimate try against the All Blacks in the second Test, only for referee Derek Bevan to disallow it. NZ won the Test 13-12. Did you score?
A: Yes, I felt it was a fair try and so did everyone at the ground. Everyone expect for the ref, that is. We ended up winning that series (2-1) but it could have been 3-0.
Q: You were also part of two other memorable moments in Australian Rugby history – the 1987 World Cup and the 1989 British Lions tour to Australia. What do you remember of those times?
A: It would have been better if we were overseas for that World Cup. Guys were working and had commitments. We probably didn't prepare for the home environment as such. Australia learnt a lot from that first World Cup as to how to prepare for the next one. We'd go to warm up at Concord Oval and you had to walk through the carpark and wait for cars to drive through. We just had to get on with it. It was disappointing not to go all the way. The Lions tour was amazing. It's some of the best players in the world coming out to play you. It wasn't the best result (2-1 series loss) but still a great experience.
Q: You had a bird's eye view of that fateful pass from David Campese to Greg Martin in the third and deciding Test. What was going through your mind?
A: Poor old Campo…he copped the blame but he also won us heaps of games. You just can’t pin it on him. He was one of the best players in the world.
Q: Talking of birds, how did you earn the nickname "Bird"?
A: I've had that for as long as I can remember. It's from Big Bird from Sesame Street. I was tall with blond hair back then and had a big nose. It was appropriate (laughs).
Q: What are the other stand-out moments of your international career?
A: A few of us got picked in the World XV side and played games in the UK with New Zealand and South African players. To share a room with Mark "Cowboy" Shaw and to train and play with players of that calibre was pretty special. But any time you play for your country was a special time. I don't see much of the guys these days but when I do it's just like we'd seen each other yesterday.
Q: You played 34 Tests over almost a decade but finished quite early at just 28. Why did you cut short your international career?
A: My body had had enough. I had back problems for ages. I didn’t really know what was wrong so I kept going and hoped you’d wake up on the day of the game and feel good. I got married and started a family and I wasn't making any money from rugby. I stopped at international level and went back to club at Eastwood for about three years. My body was done but that was a lot of fun.
Q: I believe a job you picked up with Bundy Rum soon after retiring was also a lot of fun?
A: God, yeah (laughs). I did some contract work for the ARU when they got the Bundy sponsorship. Mark Ella and myself used to travel around Australia giving out rugby kits for clubs. We'd go all over the place handing out goalpost pads, hit shields, balls…and then we'd put on a coaching clinic and a function at night. It was actually really good fun. And we'd have the odd quiet rum!
Q: What have you been you to since those days?
A: I went back into rugby. Clubs were employing general managers and I ended up at Norths Rugby. I wanted to do management and administration before I went into coaching, which I've been at ever since. That's the career now. I had six years at the Waratahs (as an assistant coach). We were reasonably successful back then and then I came over here to Japan (in 2009) and coached various teams. I have been back and forwards between here and Australia in that time. You've just got to go where the jobs are. At the moment I am involved in the starting up of a sports club (Yokogawa Musashino Sport Club). We've got rugby, we've started up a junior academy, a youth academy for girls and a girls' side. We've also got school programs, academy programs. It's pretty full on. I coach the rugby. I'd love to come back and coach at Super Rugby level but it's all about timing with coaching jobs in this industry.
